Belief drives behavior. And those underlying beliefs (that we may not even be aware of) impact our ability to lead day-in and day-out in a way that is aligned with Respect for People and Continuous Improvement – and in a way that makes Lean implementation and culture stick to help us create more value for customers.

I’ve previously shared 5 leadership shifts to move from traditional management to Lean leadership and also why mindset matters in Lean leadership.

Common Lean Leadership Belief Barriers

As I’ve partnered with managers and practitioners, I’ve run across some common Lean Leadership Belief Barriers.

Have you or someone you’ve worked with experienced one of these before? 

• My team is too _____ (tenured, stuck in their ways, fill in the blank) to embrace Lean.
• We don’t make cars. Lean doesn’t work in our business.
• My goal as a manager is to stay off the “bad” list.
• Leader Standard Work is too rigid and won’t work for my ever-changing schedule.
• ​​​There are so many problems to solve and things to do, the team can’t handle it all. Something will always slip. 
• People don’t deserve to be recognized for “just doing their jobs.”
• Red is bad.
• I have more experience and know better how to ____________ (problem solve, design systems, fill in the blank) than the team does.
• The team just brings up problems. Don’t bring me a problem without a solution.
• The only thing that matters is the result. The ends justify the means.
• Leader Standard Work is a way to dumb down my job and doesn’t take into account all of the skill and talent that I bring to the table.
• We don’t make widgets – every product / service is custom, so Lean doesn’t apply to us.
• Employees who go above and beyond (even if it means breaking process) to firefight are the ones who deserve recognition.
• We can never allow a customer failure to happen – we have to make it work at all costs.
• Employees are the source of my problems – they stand in the way of implementing and sustaining Lean.

These underlying belief barriers make it more difficult to authentically and consistently lead with Lean. They actually impact our behaviors.

How Belief Barriers Impact Leadership Behaviors

When we harbor one of these (or another one not listed here) belief barriers, it makes it harder for us to change our leadership behaviors.

We try to use Gemba Walks or Leader Standard Work to improve our business, but our actions are inconsistent or come across to the team as inauthentic.

We try to tell our teams to raise problems, but the team doesn’t think we really want to hear them.

We try to teach and coach problem solving capabilities of the team, but can’t stop ourselves from giving them the answer. So the team blows us off and chooses not to participate in the future.

We try to implement workflow systems to reduce process waste and create more continuous flow, but the team doesn’t trust us or doesn’t see the value and abandons the systems.

Belief drives behavior. ​ ​​​Or as they say at Barry Wehmiller, “how you think is how you lead.”

What Belief Barriers have you run across along your Lean transformation?

How could breaking through those belief barriers enable the team to create more value for customers?